Local Group Concerned by Federal Decision Not to Publicly Report Hospital Errors

A surgeon puts on gloves before an open-heart surgery in a cardiac surgery unit at the hospital in Angers, western France, on October 24, 2013. The Angers hospital employs 6,000 people including 980 doctors. AFP PHOTO / JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD (Photo credit should read JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images)

Photo: JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD/AFP/Getty Images

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – A local health advocacy group is concerned about changes made by the federal government to stop publicly reporting when hospitals make life-threatening mistakes while treating patients.

At the start of this month, the feds quietly stopped reporting certain key hospital errors.

“Sometimes these measures are referred to as ‘never events,’ so they might be things like having something left behind following surgery, and they’re really things that should never happen, no matter ow sick you are,” says Louise Probst, executive director of the St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition.

Probst says while many of these hospital mistakes were rare, they happen more than you would think.

“I think we’re disappointed, we’re hopeful that some new measures that come out that have meaning for consumers and the public,” Probst says.

And now, she says, it’s just gotten a lot tougher to find out which hospitals are making errors that could cost you your life.

Fred Bodimer joined KMOX in 1982 after graduating from the University of Missouri at Columbia, School of Journalism. Bodimer is the Health and Religion editor for KMOX News and executive news producer for The Mark Reardon Show, Total Information PM,...